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Axl Rose attempts to hide unflattering photo from the world

By | Published on Monday 6 June 2016

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Hey, wanna see the Streisand Effect in action? Reps for Axl Rose have seemingly been attempting to get an unflattering photograph of the singer removed from the internet, resulting in more people being interested in looking at it.

Recent updates to the Lumen Database, which tracks DMCA takedown requests, shows that half a dozen filings were made to Google recently requesting that the photograph from 2010 be taken down from accounts on Blogspot and GoogleUserContent. It has not been removed though, possibly because ownership of the copyright is not entirely clear – although the posts targeted in the takedown do definitely infringe the copyright of whoever owns the picture.

Web Sheriff, which submitted the notices on Rose’s behalf, says that the photographer who took the picture at a show in Canada signed an agreement assigning rights to the photograph to the Guns N Roses frontman.

Contacted by TorrentFreak, that photographer – Boris Minkevich – said he couldn’t remember if he’d signed a contract or not. If he didn’t, Web Sheriff says he’d have been at the show in an unauthorised capacity, meaning Rose could use his own image rights to have the picture blocked. Which would only work in some territories.

The original publication of the photograph alongside a review of the show at Winnipeg’s MTS Centre on the Winnipeg Free Press website hasn’t been targeted though, which suggests Rose and Web Sheriff aren’t quite as confident in their claim as they make out.



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